


Slow Ripening Fruit

by Quoshara



Category: Riptide (TV)
Genre: Boats and Ships, Domestic Ballet, Inappropriate Towels, Other, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Skinny Dipping, Sun Bathing, Swimming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-03
Updated: 2011-04-03
Packaged: 2017-10-17 12:12:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/176750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quoshara/pseuds/Quoshara
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not always about a case...sometimes it's just life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Ripening Fruit

**Author's Note:**

> Written at the request of my darling, speak_me_fair, who wanted Cody POV about peace. This wound up being more about friendship, but sometimes that's that same thing (I hope. *G*). Thanks to little_tristan for the lovely beta work.

_Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is slow-ripening fruit._ \- Aristotle"  


* * *

"Oh, come on...just lean back and relax."

"I _am_ relaxing, Nick. It just doesn't help." Murray's voice was sounding a bit frustrated.

"Just leave him alone," Cody called from the deck of the _Riptide_. "No matter how hard you try, you aren't going to get him to float."

Cody adjusted his straw hat and took a long cool sip of beer. Although he didn't swim often, Boz was a great swimmer once he relaxed, those long, wiry arms and fingers letting him cut through the water like a harpoon. But what he could _not_ do was float, no matter how hard he tried. He just didn't have enough body fat to buoy him up.

Still, Nick never gave up trying to teach him and poor long-suffering Murray went along with it every time.

A sudden, almost girly, yell echoed over the water, then a huge splash. "Murray! Damn it! That's no fair."

Yes, Boz went along with Nick every time but only for so long. Then he took revenge in some very creative way. So Cody figured that Murray would make an appearance in five...four...three...two...

Like a seal from one of the _Marineland_ shows, Murray surfaced at the side of the boat, clambered up the ladder, and tumbled clumsily onto the deck, his loud hawing laughter ringing through the air. Clutched tightly in his hand was a wet bundle of some very familiar looking blue material, but before Cody could figure out what it was, Murray leapt to his feet and skittered off through the door of the Salon.

"Murray!!" Nick had apparently reached the side of the boat. "Damn it. Cody, toss me a towel, would ya?"

"What do you need a towel for?" Cody was normally as curious as a cat, but like that cat, was far too comfortable in his warm spot to want to move, even to satisfy his curiosity.

"Murray stl m st." Nick mumbled.

"What?"

"Murray stole my bathing suit, alright?" Nick grumbled loudly, "And I'll be damned if I'll climb over the side with my dick waving in the breeze."

Cody looked slowly around the tiny inlet where they had dropped anchor. Other than a couple of teenagers in a little sunfish, they hadn't seen anyone else all afternoon.

Still, he obligingly stood and tossed a towel over the side "Come on, Nick. It's not like Murray and I haven't seen it before."

Somehow Nick managed to tread water and knot the towel around his waist at the same time, "I don't care, it's...it's undignified."

Cody snorted at him as he came up the ladder, "You probably should have thought about undignified before you bought that towel with the big pink flamingo on it."

And considering exactly _where_ the flamingo's head had wound up when Nick tied the towel around his waist, it was a completely valid statement.

Nick gave Cody a wry grin, "Can you imagine Murray doing something like that 15 years ago? Heck, can you imagine him doing it even two years ago?"

"Hey, he's a full partner... that means he even gets his share of harassing you."

Nick opened the cooler next to Cody's chair and pulled out a beer. "Yeah...but he's getting too good at it. Next thing I know, he'll be putting down the _Mimi_ and leaving his damp towel on my bunk."

"Hey, Boz is smart enough to manage his own harassment. He doesn't have to copy me."

"Yeah, can't imagine you stealing my suit, either." Nick laughed, popping open the can in his hand.

"You deserved that, you know?"

"Yeah, I did." Nick admitted, then wandered off to get dressed.

**

Three hours later and Cody was still stretched out in his lounge chair. He'd pulled on a shirt, switched from beer to water, and put up a beach umbrella in deference to the noontime sun, but this was really what he planned on doing for most of the weekend...nothing.

Their last case had been stressful - a web of lies and betrayals that would have made Gordius proud. But they'd solved it, sent the bad guys to jail, and put the girl - _wasn't there always a girl?_ \- on a plane back to Illinois. They'd needed this rest, all three of them. They had begun to get snippy with each other and that was _never_ good for three people living under one roof...or in this case, one overhead.

So, they'd come back from the airport, and Murray, _bless him_ , had simply untied the line before he climbed aboard, and they had been out of the harbor without another word.

The feeling of peace was incredible.

No worries about money. No competition for the attention of the _Contessa's_ crew. No sniping over who left their towel on the floor or who didn't close the cabin door...just three friends relaxing, teasing each other and having fun.

Someone had asked him once, if he didn't get tired of spending so much time with Nick and Murray, because they not only lived together, but worked together every day. She thought it was strange that they still found so much enjoyment in each others company after all this time. But really, they all had their separate interests. Nick spent time fiddling with the _Mimi_ and showing off in his 'Vette. Murray had his computer thing - a thing that Cody _still_ barely understood - and his Hi-Q friends. And he had the _Riptide_ and the _Ebbtide_. And if none of that was appealing, they were only minutes away from one of the largest cities in the United States, and had lots of other friends to share it with.

As a matter of fact, other than working on the case, they had spent remarkably little time together lately. Murray was helping to design a robotics workshop for the kids in the upcoming Redondo Beach Parks & Rec summer program. Nick was pitching in there too. He was going to guide a couple of airport tours for them. Both of them had been bugging Cody about being an instructor in the Surfing Class for twelve to fourteen year olds.

They lead pretty active lives outside of work with no time to be bored or to get tired of each other. As a matter of fact, if someone had asked him now, he would have had to say that he had actually _missed_ his friends over the last few weeks.

Not that he'd say that out loud...or ever.

"God, Cody is that all you have planed for the weekend? I don't think you've moved from that spot. Your ass is going to be permanently attached to that thing." Nick scowled at him, but his eyes were twinkling. "What do you think, Murray?"

"A tragic case of _statarius taedium_ ," Murray nodded.

"Yeah, you got Static in your...what he said." Nick chuckled.

"Hey, just because I don't find it necessary to run around expending energy in order to relax..."

"Oh. You don't want to _expend_ energy do you? Would you listen to that, Murray? Cody doesn't want to **_expend_** energy."

"I heard him, Nick." Murray nodded solemnly.

"I guess we'll just have to expend it for him."

"That sounds like an excellent idea."

Ten seconds later, Cody found himself summarily dumped over the side and into the cool water.

So much for his peace.

He didn't really mind though because Nick was laughing and Boz had a huge grin on his face, two things that were high on Cody's "Best Things in the World EVER" list. A list that expanded when Nick leaned down over the side to offer Cody a hand back onto the ship and Murray purposely bumped him, sending him, arms pinwheeling like crazy, into the water.

"Murray!!" Nick sputtered when he resurfaced. "That's twice today. Twice!"

Ah, to hell with peace, it was much more fun grabbing Murray around his too-skinny knees and dumping him into the water as well.

**

Later that afternoon, all three of them waterlogged and relaxed, they had danced in the galley making dinner. Just salad and sandwiches in deference to the hot weather and their own laziness, but in the natural ballet that they'd developed from moving around each other in the limited space of the _Riptide_. No personal space barriers intruded on the smooth flow of accomplishing food, and no apologies if they did bump or touch, just a smile, an adjustment and a continuation.

"Beer?"

"Soda. Thanks."

"Is there any of that Swiss cheese left?"

"Yeah, right here. Pass me the mustard, would you?"

"Are you done with this knife?"

"Yeah. Did you get some potato salad?"

When had they become so peacefully domestic? Cody had no idea, but somehow he knew if he removed his two friends and put a woman in the same position, he'd probably have been feeling edgy rather than relaxed.

In his experience, when a woman became domestic she wanted him to change, and he was perfectly happy with the way he was. Yeah, he supposed there were women out there for whom that wasn't true...and the day he met one, he might fall...and fall hard.

And possibly sell the _Riptide_ and settle down....

 _Nah!_

The sudden feeling of a cold can of beer purposefully placed against the back of his neck jolted him back to awareness.

"What's with you today, Cody?" Nick chuckled, as he pulled the can away. "Are you part of this shindig or what?"

"Part...definitely part." Cody laughed and took a seat next to Murray.

"Oh, guys, it was so boss. I think I saw a Lion's Paw scallop when we were swimming earlier. It's really unusual to see them this far north. It's fascinating. They're native to the Gulf of California and farther south actually,but one time Baba and I actually found one as far..."

Cody relaxed, letting Murray's words flow over him. This was all part of the background of his life - Murray's enthusiasm, Nick's snarking and teasing, how they all worked together.

It was what it was. Life. Peace. Friendship. And no matter how he looked at it, he knew he was a lucky man.

**


End file.
